Ashley Ashcroft
Ashley Ashcroft is a hotheaded news reporter and a survivor of the outbreak. Ashley starts out with a flaming temper and carries an "every-man-for-himself" attitude but after accidentally shooting and killing Akiko Suzuki, Ashley became convinced that fate was at play and that all of them are alive for a reason - to discover who's behind the outbreak and take them down. Biography Pre-Outbreak Not much is known about Ashley's past. Ashley was a news reporter in Las Vegas and was at one point a deputy of police. The Outbreak (July 2009) Ashley and her cameraman Alex meet up with Enrique, Cherry, Antonio and Horace. Ashley tells them that she and Alex are videotaping the action in order to take it to the TV News Station in an attempt to broadcast it nationwide to give the country a warning. The group is chased by a giant swamp monster, which manages to slaughter Alex on camera. Ashley and the group meet up with Asher and Jackie at the TV Station, where Ashley's plan doesn't work and her camera is broken. Antonio is attacked by a giant zombie black widow spider but accidentally shot in the face and killed by a gunshot blast from Cherry, and Ashley manages to kill the black widow. Ashley is easily irked by the mentions of Enrique's missing pregnant wife and Jackie's requests to search for her teenaged son Gordon. Horace abandons the group due to Ashley's attitude, which she deems fine with her. Ashley allows Enrique to look in the suburban neighborhood he resides to look for his wife, to no avail. He finds a blood stain on the wall, but is optimistic seeing that there are no remains anywhere for any bodies and that there'd surely be something left of her. They move on, and meet up with motorcyclist Chelsea Powers in the middle of the city, who tells them to take refuge in a nightclub. Following this, a zombie attack occurs while Charles Duncan and his group arrive. Jackie is reunited with her son Gordon, and the two groups converge to form one. Chelsea tells them about her group of people at the mall, and they decide to follow her there. Enrique and his wife reunite at the mall, but the place is deemed unsafe due to two people being dead in the course of a few hours. They flee the mall and during the chaos in the middle of a thunderstorm and zombie attack, Ashley fires her gun, accidentally shooting the innocent Akiko. In horror of her actions, Ashley buries Akiko and attempts to find redemption for her death. The group is later attacked via airstrike in the middle of a field by unfriendly mercenary Victor, who drops molotov cocktails on the field, separating them by a wall of flames. Ashley leads her group through one side of the forest, determined to find answers and defeat the people responsible for the outbreak. Cherry and Joshua are later killed, but shortly thereafter Asher discovers a hatch buried in the ground. They go inside to find a psychopathic scientist named Jack Terrier residing there. He is a member of the Project, the group responsible for the outbreak. Following an interrogation by Ashley herself, Jack presses a button on his desk letting out various test subjects (zombies) upon the group. Religious Cindy sacrifices herself, shooting a generator while being attacked by zombies, blowing herself up, but also the other zombies. Everyone else manages to survive the explosion, escaping into a hatch leading to the sewers. Jack is gravely injured, however, and seemingly dies once Charles, Gordon and Jackie arrive (they followed the smoke, leaving Chloe, Griffin, Enrique and Maya behind in the jungle). Jack later rises again, only to blow himself up with a bomb strapped to his chest, but blocking their way back to the rest of Charles' people in the forest. When Ophie goes missing, Charles instructs Asher to lead Ashley and the others above ground into the city. When Ashley, alongside Asher, Kara, Jackie and Chelsea, arise from the sewers into the city they find it completely decimated.